Chapter 2
June 17, Year Zero
I'm dead. Sifir decided as the big block of concrete fell towards him. There's no way I'm getting out of this one.
There was a large crash, and he shielded his face as great cloud of dust and debris buffeted his arms. He cautiously opened his eyes to see the cracked block less than two feet away from his face. What? I'm not dead?
"Major Kururugi! And is that…Zero?" an unfamiliar voice cried.
Guns cocked in response, and Sifir froze. That was a sound only heard in historical movies and documentaries.
"You fools!" A man's voice rang out. "Princess Euphemia is with them too! Capture them! Capture them!"
Princess Euphemia? You mean Princess Massacre? Sifir shrank back. Images of her happily shooting the Japanese and ordering the Britannian troops to do the same at the SAZ opening ceremony played through his head. There was no shortage of documentaries and dramatizations of that event.
"Zero, that Knightmare there!" a woman's voice floated over the sound of falling debris.
Zero? He straightened, clipping his head painfully against the concrete.
Then came the digitally altered voice of a long-dead legend. "Right! We'll use that! Let's go!"
Sifir pushed himself up and peered over the lip of the concrete just in time to see a masked man disappear into the cockpit of a giant black and gold Knightmare. The Gawain!
He shook his head. No, that's impossible. This has to be a video game or some other kind of immersive simulation. Someone's playing tricks on me, he thought, though the sensors on his appband told him otherwise. While simulations were very sophisticated and realistic, the graphics were seldom as vivid as real objects in reality.
A brilliant flash of light caught his eye and he turned to see a red-haired girl facing down several soldiers. He froze. Isn't that Kallen Kozuki, ace of the Black Knights?
His suspicions were confirmed when the girl deftly backhanded the first soldier and kicked another one painfully in the stomach. His eyes widened. Holy Angel of Britannia, she's good.
As the commander barked out frantic orders, the woman took the opportunity to grab an assault rifle from one of the fallen soldiers. She peppered the ground with bullets as the soldiers formed a wall around Euphemia and her knight. Suzaku Kururugi, Euphemia li Britannia, Kallen Kozuki, and Zero–two of the worst figures in history against two of the best.
Over the din of panicked shouts and gunfire came the sound of a Knightmare cockpit closing. Distracted, the soldiers momentarily glanced at the Gawain, and Kozuki took advantage of the momentary pause of gunfire to climb onto the Gawain and hold on as the behemoth turned towards the cave entrance. Sifir frowned. I'm pretty sure that that entrance wasn't there before.
"Ah! The Gawain!" someone shouted.
The giant Knightmare sped towards the entrance with a screech of its landspinners and fired its Hadron Cannons at the Sutherlands that moved to block its escape. Surprisingly, the cannon fire scattered itself over a wide radius, destroying several columns in the process and completely missing the Sutherlands that waited outside. Silently, Sifir marveled at the Sutherland pilots' valor. It took a lot of courage to stand in front of a charging Knightmare twice the size of yours and keep firing. Or maybe they were just extraordinarily stupid.
Regardless, the Knightmare took flight, feet barely clearing the line of Sutherlands, and sped out of sight.
Sifir let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. This has to be some reenactment or a video or a game or something. There's just no other explanation. This isn't real. He told himself. I'm pretty sure this is all the work of that Chawla girl, probably because I didn't let Leila test her microwave claw thing. He'd heard that she had a reputation for holding very long grudges, though it wouldn't be over such a petty thing, would it?
Setting down the archeological analyzer on the edge of the concrete block, he took out his PSD and beamed an invisibility projector onto his hand. The object resembled a palm-sized ball that was cut in half, with warped glass surrounding a smaller black sphere suspended in the center. At a mental command, the projector emitted a soft white glow as it powered on before returning to its normal state. He held the PSD at arm's length. With a silent thought, a mirror flickered into existence. As expected, he saw nothing but the stone mural behind him.
Shoving the PSD into his pocket, Sifir climbed onto the concrete block. It seemed as if most of the activity had moved towards the entrance. Soldiers were busy clearing out of the area, disconnecting wires and removing lighting. The Sutherland that had been standing next to the Gawain had also been removed, revealing a purple plate where it had been standing. A chill ran down his spine as he realized that he had found it almost in the exact same position before the earthquake had happened.
He stepped aside to avoid colliding with a passing soldier. I swear, if Chawla's really behind this, I'm going to make sure she never gets her hands on a simulator ever again. It wouldn't be the first time that someone had played a prank on him, though none of them were ever so elaborate.
Agitated voices echoed down the cave as Sifir approached the entrance. What? he exclaimed as he saw two soldiers and a man in a blue uniform surrounded Kururugi. Why are they pointing their guns at him? I thought he was their best Knightmare pilot. Or maybe his plans on taking over the world with Lelouch were found out? Euphemia certainly looks puzzled. His frown turned into a leer as he saw the blond man in a military jacket put his hand comfortingly on Euphemia's shoulder and murmured something that Sifir couldn't quite catch. Schneizel. Coward, he thought. All he does is leech off other people. He even surrendered to Lelouch just when he could've killed the Demon by detonating a FLEIJA onboard the Damocles and died a heroic death.
He watched as the group boarded a giant white and orange airship with some kind of black metal rod that extended from its nose. With a jolt, he realized that he was staring at the first airship to ever be built, the Avalon. The hatch closed as soon as they boarded and the engines started to roar.
He paused for a moment, considering his options. He could try to convince whoever was tricking him with this immersive game to let him back to reality, or he could follow the Avalon and see where it went, but seeing where this would go, regardless of whether it was real or not, was so tempting…
Aiming the projector of his PSD so that the light wouldn't escape the range of the invisibility projector, he beamed out his skimmer. He could try and find out what the heck was happening later, but the Avalon wasn't going to sit there waiting for him.
As he placed the invisibility projector into a compartment on the skimmer and mounted it, the Avalon took flight and he followed behind. The skimmer beeped No satellite detected the console read. He frowned, but ignored the message, as well as the traces of doubt that had started to grow within him. Such technologies were very reliable, so it would be nearly impossible not to have connection as long as he was on Earth unless someone placed some kind of communication suppressor nearby. Or maybe Chawla had done just that.
He checked his appband again. According to its sensors, he wasn't in a game of any kind. The closest pieces of technology outside of his own were the Avalon and the Knightmares that stood guard around the area. Or maybe that Chawla girl was still jamming his sensors?
A sprawling metropolis greeted Sifir as he followed the Avalon towards a city that he recognized as the Tokyo Settlement. He ran it over with a critical eye. It looks so different from the city that was rebuilt after the FLEIJA, he commented to himself. Though it was probably for the better in the long run. Destroying the center of the settlement had effectively cleaned out everything, forcing its inhabitants to reconstruct everything in a way that would mix both Britannian and Japanese cultures after the Demon Emperor's death. The FLEIJA itself had also helped scientists learn how to convert matter and light interchangeably, leading to the creation of the PSD.
He watched the Avalon head towards a white building in the center of the city. The government bureau, perhaps?
As he approached the building, several helicopters took flight and flew towards the Avalon. Perhaps they were directing it towards the airstrip?
To his surprise, the helicopters ignored the Avalon and continued heading straight past the airship. His hands tightened on the skimmer. Are they flying…towards me? He stopped and hovered uncertainly, watching the approaching helicopters draw nearer.
He glanced at the invisibility projector. It still sat in the compartment of the skimmer, pulsing every so often to indicate that it was in use. If I'm invisible, then why are they flying straight at me? …unless they're using radar. he belatedly realized.
Of course the Britannians would have such tight security. The Chinese Federation lay only a couple hundred kilometers away, so they had to have people monitoring the air and sea around them at all times.
With a thought, he commanded the invisibility projector to block the radar just as the helicopters opened fire.
Oh crap.
He threw himself into a reckless dive to the left to avoid the hailstorm of bullets. One of them nicked him and he gasped, fiery pain spreading over his upper right arm.
"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap," he whispered as he turned to look at the wound on his arm.
Blood. Lots of it. The stuff literally caked his clothes and his skimmer, though his shirt was already busily mending itself and tightening around the wound to stem the flow of blood. Hopefully that should be enough until he could stop somewhere and fix up the gash.
He turned around to steer the skimmer, only to see a bright yellow wall rushing up at him.
Fuck.
He blacked out.
June 17, Year Zero
"Nya."
A small, moist something poked at Sifir gently. "What is it?" he groaned and opened his eyes, only to shut them immediately as he was assailed by bright lights. His head pounded like a hundred exploding FLEIJAs, and every heartbeat made it progressively more painful.
"Nya, nya…nya!" That 'nyaning' was getting irritating.
"…NYAN!"
"What the hell do you want?!" Sifir shouted, then gasped as the world swayed and pitched around him like an airbus spinning out of control. The yowl still rang in his ear and the migraine was definitely not helping, as well as the throbbing arm. He looked over to see a dark grey cat sitting next to him on a bed swathed with crisp white sheets.
"Nya…" the cat mewed apologetically, laying a tiny paw on Sifir's lap.
He smiled, his hand unconsciously reaching out to pet the smooth, dark grey fur. "I'm sorry I yelled at you, I didn't mean it." he replied to the cat's apology.
"Oh! You're awake!" Sifir glanced over to see a woman dressed in a pink uniform walk into the room. Was she supposed to replace the medical robot while it was being repaired? He frowned slightly. While humans could do a decent job diagnosing and treating injuries, they were generally less efficient and reliable than medical robots. And shouldn't the hospital have at least another droid to replace the one undergoing maintenance, or was it understaffed? Such things had stopped being the norm about five hundred years ago.
"How are you feeling? Do you feel any discomfort at all? Headaches? Disorientation?" the nurse asked as she walked up to him. Her clothes looked…weird, like those really old ones found in a museum.
"Just blasted big migraine, and my arm feels weird." he replied hoarsely.
The nurse nodded understandingly and handed him a cup of water. "That's normal. I've administered some medicine that will help ease the pain of the gash on your arm, and you seem to have a concussion as well. Though if I didn't know any better I'd say that the wound on your arm was caused by a bullet rather than a rock. Anyway, do you know where you are?"
He frowned. Bullet wound? There was more to that, but he couldn't quite remember what. He recalled an ocean and an island… "Japan, though I don't know where."
"You got that part correct. We're in the medical center in Ashford Academy, Tokyo."
Wasn't there something special about Tokyo? Before he could consider it any further, the nurse asked, "Do you know what day it is today, then?"
"Um, Friday?" He took a sip of water and relaxed as the cool liquid eased the throbbing in his head slightly.
The nurse glanced at her watch. "It's Sunday, actually, Sunday June 17th."
What? That didn't feel right. "What year is it?"
The nurse smiled. "It's 2017. Don't worry if you can't remember a lot of things. I just needed to determine the severity of your concussion. For now, just rest here for a few hours. Do you remember any of your parents' contact information? Or even their names?"
Year 2017. That didn't make sense. What year was it yesterday?
…no, focus. What did the woman just ask? Something about contact info. What was that? Did she need information on how to get to them? Couldn't she just identify him by his fingerprint? Or gene sequence? "…don't know, sorry." he replied hesitantly.
"That's okay, just tell me when you remember so I can tell them where you are. I need to fill out some forms for the camping club at the moment. If you need anything, just holler." The nurse said and after Sifir acknowledged it, she disappeared into an office a few beds down the aisle. He saw a boy enter the office and exchange a few words with the nurse through a window.
Moments later, the boy hurried into the room, his blue hair blown into a spiky mess. He was dressed in a black collared uniform with simple gold lines on it. "You're awake!" the boy exclaimed before extending a hand. "Hi, I'm Rivalz Cardemonde. Nice to meet you. I was the one who found you lying unconscious outside and helped you here."
Sifir stared mutely at the hand for a moment. The gesture reminded him of something, though he couldn't remember what. Trusting his instincts, he put the palm of his hand against the boy's–Rivalz's hand and let him shake his limp hand once. What a weird thing to do when we've just met. he thought idly. "I'm sorry, but I don't quite remember seeing you before." he said.
A look of puzzlement flashed across Rivalz's cheerful face before disappearing as he realized something. "Oh, yeah. The nurse said that this might happen. Don't worry, though. I'm sure you'll remember later."
Beside Sifir, the cat, who had curled up next to him and apparently fallen asleep when the nurse left, looked up. "Nya," it said, tail waving slightly in anticipation.
"Arthur!" Rivalz exclaimed. "There you are! I was looking all over for you! You missed your lunch!"
Arthur stepped delicately over Sifir's lap and sat down in front of Rivalz, tail curling up neatly around its legs, eyes looking eagerly into Rivalz's.
"Oh! I haven't introduced you two to each other yet!" Rivalz said. He gestured to Arthur. "Meet Arthur, the school cat. We adopted him when he wandered on campus. And Arthur, meet…"
"Sifir," he said. "Sifir Opelo."
Arthur batted at Rivalz's arm. "Nya!"
"Ah, I'd better feed him before he goes complaining to Milly." Rivalz said abashedly, running a hand through his hair. He scooped up the complaining feline, and, after sending one last wave at Sifir, exited the room.
AN:
Okay, now I really understand why other writers enjoy writing fanfics. Reviews. We get high off of them. And we crave them like no other frickin' drug.'Nuff said.
Anyway, about the story. The chapter was supposed to end when Sifir crashes into the building, but I figured two cliffhangers in a row would piss people off, and added part of the third chapter in as the last POV. So expect the next update to be a bit slower than this one since I need to fill in that gap.
One more thing: some of you may have noticed that the latest events are happening on June 17th, which is usually when summer break has started for most schools, so technically Ashford shouldn't be open. However, my impression of it is that the school runs year round regardless of whether classes are going on.
To be honest though, the specific date shouldn't matter that much; it is how they are relative to each other that tells a bit more about the story.